After Assam, Manipur ready for 'poriborton': Sarbananda Sonowal

As the race to the Manipur assembly gets tighter, 'change' was the buzzword in Assam's BJP chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal address as he joined the party's Manipur campaign on Wednesday.

| TNN | Updated: Feb 23, 2017, 05:57 IST

Sarbananda Sonowal

IMPHAL: As the race to the Manipur assembly gets tighter, 'change' was the buzzword in Assam's BJP chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal address as he joined the party's Manipur campaign on Wednesday.

"Assam witnessed a change last year. It's Manipur's turn now," Sonowal said while addressing a meeting in the city's prestigious Sagolband constituency, where BJP has fielded Khwairakpam Loken Singh, a former president of the All Manipur Students' Union (Amsu). Loken Singh was at the head of Amsu in 1984 when Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was leading the anti-foreigner agitation spearheaded by the All Assam Students' Union (Aasu).

Sonowal attacked the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Congress government for playing politics with the ongoing blockade at a time when common people are suffering. "The economic blockade should have been lifted by the state government because that is its responsibility. How can they blame the Centre?" he said. If there was a similar blockade in Assam, he claimed, it would be his government's duty to lift it. The state government cannot blame the Centre when it has failed in its duties, he added.

Sonowal accused the Congress government of not giving land to start the proposed Sports University in Manipur. The project was sanctioned when he was Union minister of state for sports. He said the Centre wanted to create a world-class sports university and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally chosen Manipur because of the state's contribution to sports. But, the state government was delaying it by not providing land, he added.

Highlighting the new BJP government's achievements in Assam, Sonowal said that in the last eight months, the NDA government at the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has resolved the major pending issues of his state. Two days ago, for instance, the Centre gave Assam over Rs 7,000 crore in oil royalty, which was pending for many years, he said.

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